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Juha, OH6XX and I spent 4 days at the station to make some changes with the antennas. Some time ago we bought a 20-15-10 meter triplexer with HP BPF’s from Ranko, 4O3A. To make the antenna switching more simple, we decided to go monobanders with the EU tower.

Last Thursday we took down the EU tribander stack and started to make 4 el OWA yagis for 20, 15 and 10. Kari, OH5LF came to make some modifications to the AC distribution network and the grounding of the station.

New yagis were completed on Friday and lifting up to the tower was scheduled for Saturday. Peter, OH5NQ and Kimmo, OH5KS came to help and the antennas were up in the tower in less than 2 hours.

20 meter yagi is based on G0KSC desing with re-modelled element tapering. 15 and 10 yagis were replicated based on 20 meter data.

On Sunday we ran a 135 meter hardline to the EU tower to complete the assembly. On 40 we have a 1/2 inch cable, on 20 a 5/8 and on 15 and 10 meters a 7/8 inch hardline.

Next time we will add some stackmatches, triplexer, BPF’s and 50 ohm switchable dummy loads together with 4O3A SAC X controllers to complete new antenna switching system.

This year we were back in Multi/Single trying to improve our
OH record score from last year. Propagation forecast looked good
but there was a great risk of radio blackouts and Aurora blocking
the propagation to North America.

After repairing all other lightning damages we finally found a
fix for our running amplifier on Thursday night when OH6XX and
myself got to the station.

Friday was spend setting up the station. We had a Running position
and an inband S/P position together with 2 Multiplier stations.

Logging programmes were installed on new computers and everything was
checked to be working fine.

Kari, OH5LF arrived just before sunset with new EA4TX rotator controller
and we managed to calibrate the position potentiometer before dark.

Everything looked great and it was time for Finnish Sauna to relaxe
before the contest and to have a few hours sleep.

But then Murphy paid a visit. When we returned from Sauna, we decided to
check the tuning marks on the amplifiers. First we noticed that the
running amplifier was having a low output. Trying to tune one of the
multilier amplifiers was impossible. The mains voltage was dropping
dramatically. Plate voltage dropped by 1 kV and the amplifier was
faulting all the time. Fortunately we had a spare amplifier that was
not having all the safety features and we got it going with low power.

The other problem we noticed was with the antenna switching. When we
transmitted with Mult 1 we had a problem with 80 meter relays.
OH6XX and OG9X tried to fix the problem and it took a few hours.

The start of the contest was not what we had hoped for. Aurora blocked
20 meter propagation to NA and we worked mostly 1 pointers on 40.

Our multiplier team, OH2BU and OH7CW did a great job to dig out every
possible multiplier.
We did not reach last year’s figures, low bands were hurt by good
propagation on high bands from more southern latitudes and we could
just not break some of the pileups on high bands in the late hours
to Central America.

Murphy hit us again on the secong night. TR relay of Mult 1 amplifier
broke and we were forced to replace it with the one that was not
working on Friday night. Luckily this time it was working OK and we
were back in business.

The Murphy came back. While running on 80 we suddenly lost receiving.
Another TR relay problem? No, we checked the amplifier and it was OK.
Was it a broken front end in K3? No, the 80 meter antenna relay was
damaged. So, back in the business again.

In the end of the contest we had a 90 minutes opening into NA on 20.
Otherwise the propagation to NA was down from last year and we lost
a lot of qsos. Claimed score was down from 10.9 to 7.6 million.

Anyway we had a good time and will be back in the end of November for
CQ WW CW Contest.

We arrived the station on Friday evening and started to make a new
operating table for multiplier stations. We made a big shelf for the linears
and displays.
Next step was to repair the antenna switching. We had a problem with
160 and 80 meter antennas. Since it was getting very late we decided
to get some sleep and continue next morning.

Kari OH5LF and Kimmo OH5KS came on Saturday morning to fix the rotator
of the big 62 meter tower. The tower rotates OK, but the EA4TX control
box is burned and has to be replaced. Fortunately we have a possibility to
rotate the tower with a remote switch.

Juha OH6XX and I connected high band EU antenna back in business so
that we have 3 directions on 40 – 10 meters.

In the afternoon we replaced the broken coaxial for 40 meter stack.

After the sunset we continued with antenna switching. Finally the
problem was found and we got it operational again.

In the evening we participated The Polar Battle, Scandinavian Activity
Contest for a few hours with about 550 qsoa logged.

Now we are ready for CQ WW SSB contest. We will operate as a M/S
with 6 operators.

On Sunday, October 5, 2014 the World Radio Team Championship (WRTC)
Sanctioning Committee selected Germany as the host nation for the WRTC
2018.
This nomination followed an initative of DARC, BCC and RRDXA, initiatied
during the Ham Radio fair Friedrichshafen at the end of June 2014. A small
team, headed by Christian Janssen, DL1MGB, was set up in order to explore the option
to hold this event in Germany.

Since 1990, WRTC has been held regularly in different locations. For one
week, it brings together some 60 teams from all over the world, who then compete
in the IARU HF Team Championship under field day conditions. The last
WRTC was held in New England/USA. Only a few weeks ago, it ended with
a bronze medal for Germany.

During the next weeks, the team will launch an official organisation to
finance and conduct WRTC2018 in Germany. The team is recruiting volunteers,
in particular in the fields public relations, location management,accomodation and
social events.

Three geographical regions within Germany are currently under evaluation
and one of them will be selected as the venue for WRTC 2018: the area near
Muenster/Westfalen, the area Maerkisches Oderland east of Berlin and the
area around Jessen/Wittenberg.

Additionally, a WRTC2018 mailing list for potential participants was
established.
If you have any addtional questions or wish to join the project team,
please send a short e-mail to contact at wrtc2018.de.

A week ago Juha OH6XX and me went to the station on Friday evening to make repairs after the thunder storm. Mikko OH6HZH joined us and as it was CQ WW RTTY contest weekend his intention was to work the contest part time.

We assembled the fixed stack matches for 40-10 meters and they seemed to work OK. We still have some problems with antenna switching and we could not route antennas for 80 and 15 to the station. That we have to look again next weekend.

Kari OH5LF came on Saturday to change the chain for 62 meter tower just to find out that the motor was burned and there was also something wrong with the gear. The azimuth indication potentiometer was also burned. He will come back next weekend to repair the rotating system. We also noticed that the EA4TX rotator control was not working. There were 2 burned fuses and it seems that the -12 V power supply was damaged.

Tried also repair the semi-automatic amplifier for 160-10 m. We thought the problem was with a time-delay chip which was replaced but could not get it working with automatic band switching. Have to look that again next weekend. Fortunately we can use it as a manual amplifier.

We made new phasing lines for 20-10 meter EU stack and replaced them. While checking the SWR of the stack we figured that the stack match was broken. OK, one more broken box to the to do list.

We took a walk up on the hill to check the beverages and found NA beverage being broken in 3 places. As we have very limited time to make repairs at the station it seems that we have to work CQ WW SSB contest without RX-antennas.